KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Dr. Chieri Kubota, an associate professor of plant sciences, shows some of the research that she is conducting on tomatoes in order to enhance flavor and lycopene content.

UA faculty leaving for better pay, research space at peer institutions

Prominent chemistry professor Seth Marder left the UA last year because of the limited research space the university gave him.

He found the space he needed later that year - 1800 miles from Tucson, at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Vernon Smith, a world-renowned economics professor, left the UA in 2001 because his research wasn't receiving enough funding from the university.

One year later, after being hired at George Mason University, Smith won a Nobel Prize for his work, most of which was completed in Tucson.

The current salaries for the researchers are also 40 to 50 percent higher than what they were at UA.

In 2003, the UA lost 60 faculty members to other institutions, 11 more than the previous year.

Retaining distinguished faculty is tough for the UA, but university administrators are doing everything they can with the resources they have available, Provost George Davis said.

As a state university, the UA relies mainly on funding from the Legislature and from tuition. But the resources the university receives from the state haven't been sufficient, UA administrators said.

The state has cut more than $40 million in funding to the UA in recent years, mostly as a way to make up part of the state's budget woes. As a result, the UA has had to cut some departments and merge others. The school now only receives approximately 30 percent of its total budget from the state, down from close to 50 percent 15 years ago.

Tuition rates have also risen by $1,490 for in-state students over the past two years as a way to partially fund faculty salaries and increase class availability.

"In the last few years, there have been deep cutbacks," said Juan Garcia, vice provost for academic affairs. "We are struggling and scrambling to meet needs of a campus this size. There is only so much we can do with (our current) budget limitations."

When it comes down to it, these cuts ultimately will affect students the most, he said.

And they are beginning to take notice.

"In the past few years, we've had some of the premier academics in the world leave the UA," said Alistair Chapman, Associated Students of the University of Arizona president and task force director for the Arizona Students' Association, the student lobbyist organization.

"Noble laureates have left, and they are assets to the university," he said. "What they can teach students, their research and their help in the recruitment of top students are invaluable to the UA."

The more high-quality faculty the institution has, the greater exposure the university receives, which leads other universities to want the UA's people, Garcia said.

Talented faculty a 'double-edged sword'

The UA has consistently ranked in the top 50 public universities in U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings, with many programs in the top 10 nationally. Top programs indicate top faculty.

As a prominent academic institution, the loss of faculty to other institutions, or so-called, "brain drain," can be a sign that UA is doing something right, Garcia said.

When a university has top-notch faculty teaching at it, peer institutions will try to recruit them, and it can be a compliment to the quality of the UA staff, he said.

"We have the type of faculty that catches the eye of the other (colleges)," Garcia said. "It's a double-edged sword."

Still, the type of faculty members that are being recruited - the top of the top - are core to many of UA's colleges, including the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said Eugene Sander, vice provost and dean of CALS.

And when these faculty members leave for other institutions, they often take with them additional staff members and millions of dollars in research grants.

When Marder left UA last summer because of space limitations and salary differences to go to Georgia Tech, two other chemistry professors, Jean-Luc Bredás and Joseph Perry, and optical sciences associate professor Bernard Kippelen went along with him. All frequently collaborate together and having the opportunity to move together set the wheels in motion.

"I could move with my closest collaborators and we were given the resources to create and grow," Kippelen said, now the associate director for the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Unless you are competitive financially, you are just going to fall out of the gate. – Joaquin Ruiz

When top professors move, they take their resources - whether research, grants or fellow professors - with them and leave colleges scrambling to make up the work and classroom time.

Anytime key professors leave a department, it is difficult on research projects the department was working on, said Joaquin Ruiz, dean of the College of Science.

"It does create instability in the department because collaborations that are going on are getting disrupted," he said. "There are some people we wish would never have left."

Though Kippelen and his team did not work within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Sander knows the price colleges pay when top faculty members leave. Since 1990, 40 faculty members have left the college.

"We become less comprehensive," he said. "Our research suffers."

Students also are forced to take courses from temporary replacements hired specifically to teach a course, rather than "very good" associate professors.

"It's like (instead of) taking a golf lesson from Arnie Palmer, (it's) from a club pro," he said. "At a Research I university, students should get access to the best talent possible."

But it's a situation that isn't going away anytime soon.

The UA has a difficult time retaining and recruiting for the "hard sciences," but a little more success in the social sciences, Garcia said.

Still, that doesn't give department heads like J. Christopher Maloney, of the philosophy department, much hope.

As private universities begin capturing the best talent public universities have to offer, it opens the question of what places like the UA will look like in the future, he said.

"Because they are able to be more competitive, what does that mean 10 years down the road for students?" he asked.

"The philosophy department, like many other strong programs at the university, takes great pride that undergraduate courses are staffed by professors of the highest prominence nationally," Maloney said. "Opportunity to study with these folks doesn't happen at every institution. That's a great opportunity for students here."

But as more and more professors and other faculty members leave for more lucrative packages elsewhere, it can destroy the quality of programs that the UA can offer to future students, he said.

"Unless we can remain competitive over the long haul, you have to wonder about the opportunities they will have," Maloney said.

"Its like the Yankees. When the Yankees go looking for talent, they don't go for the worst people, they go for the best," he said.

"These are private universities. They know what they are doing. They are willing to go out and get the very best talent that is out there," he said. "And that is talent that is being led away from our students."

Trying to compete

Last year, the university lost 60 faculty members to other institutions, a significant increase from the previous year. They were offered an average of a 34 percent higher salary than the UA could pay.

UA administrators are trying to help deans and department heads bridge the salary gap they must contend with when trying to keep their faculty from moving elsewhere.

In October, the UA announced plans to set aside $2.5 million over the next two years to be used for salaries as a way to supplement state funding. Deans and department heads approach the provost's office when they feel the money should be used to target a specific individual for a salary increase. They form a partnership and decide how much should be offered to the faculty member in terms of salary and research packages. Then a decision is made on how much the faculty retention fund will contribute and how much will come from the individual college.

It has helped so far, but it is only a temporary solution, Davis said.

UA's counteroffers to faculty members with offers from other universities are higher than they ever have been before, but still around 30 percent lower than what the competition is offering, he said. The offers are typically 10 percent higher than their current UA salaries.

That still isn't enough, Maloney said.

"We struggle and it's a race where we find ourselves limping very badly," he said. "We aren't in an impossible situation, but it is a very serious problem."

Private universities, like Harvard, Syracuse and the University of Southern California - all of which recruited faculty away from the UA in 2003 - can dig into their deep coffers, even while weathering the recent economic storm, and come out in financially better condition than their public university counterparts, Maloney said.

And as the UA struggles to keep up with the current salaries at these universities, their salaries continue to climb every year, leaving the UA in the dust, he said.

"With salaries galloping at the distinguished level, unless you can stay competitive at that level year-in, year-out, that gap becomes so great that it becomes hopeless," he said. "Unless you are competitive financially, you are just going to fall out of the gate."

Ruiz also said he believes the UA's salaries are too far below peer institutions.

"I cannot go back to a faculty member and give him or her a salary nowhere near their peers," he said. "Salaries are a real problem."

Ruiz points to the salaries of peers of faculty at the College of Science, like faculty at Harvard University, the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

"Our faculty is not doing as economically well as faculty in those institutions," he said. "We must counter in a measured way."

The process to create a counteroffer once someone receives an offer from another institution, like any contract negotiation, is very give-and-take, Davis said.

But while the university can't necessarily meet the salary levels of other universities, especially those of private institutions, the UA has other benefits it can offer faculty, he said.

"(Salary levels can be) overcome by an environment where faculty can really do their best work: outstanding colleagues, excellent graduate students and a workload that is balanced to do their research and scholarship," Davis said.

The university has also begun a concept known as "cluster hiring," in which several departments pool their resources to put together a more attractive overall package, Garcia said.

"We ask, 'Can this person come here and make an impact across several different fields?' Their impact becomes much more significant," he said.

New facilities being built around campus also can show faculty that the university is dedicated to their research, he said.

"If we can build state-of-the-art classrooms, it helps our ability to retain faculty," he said.

In June, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a bill providing the UA, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University with $440 million to build new facilities. Three medical research buildings, north of Speedway Boulevard near the Arizona Health Sciences Center, will be built using the funds.

When those cranes go up, it will be worth much to the university, Davis said.

"It means we are almost there."

But "almost" didn't cut it for Kippelen. The offices for his group members and staff were in a trailer located in the loading dock at the back of the building.

"At the UA, the laboratory space occupied by my research group was 900 square feet. Here at Georgia Tech, our laboratories occupy 3,500 square feet and we have 1,500 square feet of offices," he said.

Seth Marder, who moved with Kippelen, also finds Georgia Tech's research space more suitable to his work.

"Our space is of higher quality and greater quantity and (is) centrally located," he said.

Ruiz knows the importance of the proper space to do research.

"Space is a real problem in this university. There is not enough research space in College of Science or anywhere else that I know," he said. "It is a huge challenge."

But good research needs more than just good space, he said.

"It is very important for faculty to be able to do their work properly. That means space, that means good students," he said. "That means good colleagues."

'We need help'

While crews work around campus raising new buildings, it is seen as a small gesture from the state Legislature. Recent budget shortfalls have caused cuts to the state universities, and there has yet to be a large infusion of new funds. Administrators say there is only so much they can do without help from above.

In 2002, the three state university presidents proposed the Changing Directions initiative to allow each school to pursue different goals, as well as restrict enrollment.

The Arizona Board of Regents took the initiative a step farther, approving different tuition rates for each university for the first time.

At the UA, tuition will increase by $490 for resident undergraduate and graduate students, as recommended by President Peter Likins. Out-of-state undergraduate and graduate student tuition will increase by $700. The changes will take effect in the fall.

"(The increase is) extremely important. It's made of several pieces that relate to Changing Directions," Davis said.

As part of the initial Changing Directions plan, Likins proposed - and the regents accepted - a Focused Excellence plan to limit the number of classes and majors, toughen admission requirements and increase tuition. Many of these proposals have already been put into place.

But the plan isn't without a price.

The UA becomes less comprehensive as a university with the Focused Excellence plan, Sander said.

"But as you become thinner and thinner ... you can fill a position over here where we have our strengths," he said. "The price you pay is you become less comprehensive but more talented in specific areas. I call it 'selective excellence,' rather than 'uniform mediocrity.'"

But for these plans to work, a larger commitment is needed from the state Legislature, he said.

In her 2005 budget, Napolitano calls for an additional $8 million in funding for the UA, with more than half of it going specifically toward retaining key members of the university's faculty. But it remains to be seen whether the Legislature will go along with her request.

"This session will likely end like every other session," said Rep. Ted Downing, D-Tucson, who is also a research professor at UA. "The state gradually is withdrawing support for higher education. We are slipping down the slope as we have been for years."

Downing said the people at the university must figure out a way to convince the public that "money spent at the university is an investment in the future."

"We need to convince the public we have an education problem."

Sander said he sees the work the UA administration has been doing to help faculty, but he hasn't seen the same commitment from the state.

"We need some help from someplace ... central administration has really been trying hard to help us out," said Sander. "It's a major problem across the university. All of us are working really hard to support that budget in the Legislature."

At this point, Maloney said it is up to the state and Arizona residents to decide how important higher education is to them.

"As long as we remain a public university, the citizens of this state, through the legislators, will continually need to think hard about the value to them of having in the state a university that is an outstanding institution," Maloney said.

And that's part of the reason Marder decided to leave over the summer for Georgia Tech.

"The departure of numerous high-quality faculty from UA underscores the university's inability to compete in not just my field, but generally," he said.

He credits Likins' "remarkable leadership" ability, which allowed him to navigate the university through tumultuous times.

"But (Likins) needs the resources from the state to compete nationally," Marder said. "Despite his considerable energy and vision, he can't do it alone."

"Ultimately, the citizens of Arizona need to decide whether they want a well educated work force that can compete nationally for high technology jobs," he said. "If they do, they need to provide the resources to the universities."

As the universities receive more money from the state, Arizona residents will see the benefits, Garcia said.

"Top faculty generate tremendous amounts of money," he said. "The intangibles these folks return in investment are what really impacts the UA and the community."

Marder knows it. He sees the commitment in Georgia that he didn't see from Arizona.

"It is not a coincidence that the large industrial centers of technology in the nation are near the best universities in the nation," he said. "The state of Georgia appeared to place a higher emphasis on funding of higher education than the state of Arizona."

It is that level of commitment that UA administrators want to see from the Legislature.

"We need help from the state. Brain drain affects the university and the entire state," Garcia said.

"We can't do it alone."